President Salva Kiir has told the SPLA Military Command to set the budget before making any recruitment in the army.

He made the statement after a military command conference passed a resolution changing the name of the SPLA to the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces in a bid to transform the army.

Among the 70 resolutions passed by the conference is that the recruitment of abled individuals into the army will be based on the equal share from each state, and representatives of all tribes.

President Kiir says setting up the budget for the army is meant to provide proper strategies for logistic and procurement procedures.

He also said budgeting for the army is one of the tools to fulfill the needs of the soldiers.

President Kiir was speaking at the closing of a 3 days conference attended by senior military leaders on Wednesday in Bilpam.

“The budget must be made ready first before any recruitment this is the way is done internationally,” Kiir said.

“It is not about the salaries, but soldier needs the uniform, boot up to his cap this are things you need to look for it, and you know is not only one uniform but the food itself, what will he eat in training center this is something that you will do.”

Meanwhile, President Kiir called on the generals to respect government property, asking them not to use military vehicles for their own businesses.

“Let us hope that the pickup machine guns will not be removed that so the commander takes the vehicles to do business with it. This is what finish all the army’s vehicles that any machine-guns on vehicles is been taken away, so even if the enemy came can capture your place, people can’t run away with it,” he continued.

“Respect government’s property and that thing cannot come unless you respect yourself first.”

The military command conference was held under the theme; “Restructuring for Effective Transformation.”

The conference also resolved that SPLA shall be renamed into the SSPDF. It also called for a clear policy for motivating and promoting army officers.

President Kiir called for the speedy implementation of the resolutions of the military command council.